As a child growing up in Jamaica, Williamson lived with her grandmother and great-grandmother. She was always quick to assist her great-grandmother with her health needs and medications. When she was 12, Williamson moved with her grandmother to the Bronx. She was taken aback by the way American kids behaved. Her grandmother didn't let her run around in the streets. Her great-grandmother said, "If you're doing what they're doing, you won't get far."

"It was clear early on that hard work and education would be my vehicle," Williamson said.

Williamson started working in hospitals early, first as a volunteer, or ''candy striper,'' and then in hospital food service. She started her higher education at Orange County Community College as a single mother. She remembers dropping her kids off at the college library in the morning, going to classes, coming back to have lunch with them and then going back to class.

Drawn to public health by an interest in the health disparities in the black and Hispanic population, Williamson thought she would become a lobbyist. In addition to a master's in nursing from Mercy College, she has a master's in public health from New York Medical College and a doctorate from Rutgers University. When she was an assistant nurse manager at Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital in Westchester County, her boss took a leave of absence and Williamson was promoted. The job led to other management jobs — most recently at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in Manhattan, before she was hired at Ellis Medicine last June as a vice-president and chief nursing officer. She prides herself on having convinced 25 registered nurses to go back to school at Mount Sinai. Nursing is a physical, often grueling job, and higher education allows nurses to advance, she said.

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